A simple hormone injection may help some women regain their ability to have children, British researchers reported today.
The twice-weekly injections could help "several thousand" women who are affected by infertility in the UK each year, researchers said.
The treatment involves a hormone called kisspeptin – which scientists say can increase women’s level of sex hormones.
Now doctors say they have found a way of making a long-term difference using the treatment. Early attempts had been disappointing – as daily injections soon led to the women’s bodies ceasing to respond.
Reporting to the conference of the Society for Endocrinology in Manchester, UK, the researchers say a trial of the twice-weekly treatment involving some ten women has proved encouraging.
By the end of the eight-week study, women receiving the hormone showed a 16 times increase in hormone responses of two key hormones, luteinising hormone and follicle stimulating hormone.
Dr Waljit Dhillo, of Imperial College, London, said: "Infertility is a highly distressing condition and affects up to one in seven couples in the UK.
"The results of our study are exciting as they show that kisspeptin may be a novel method for restoring fertility to women with certain types of infertility."
He added: "It is important to emphasise that this is only a small study and we need to carry out further work before our findings can be brought into clinical practice.
"Our next step is to perform a much bigger clinical study with a larger number of participants to see if kisspeptin administration can enable women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea to regain fertility."
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